Instagram chases YouTube with a push for longer, widescreen videos
Instagram is testing a new feature that allows for longer, widescreen video content to compete with platforms like YouTube. The company aims to make long-form and short-form content symbiotic to maintain user engagement.
Why it matters
This shift represents a significant strategic pivot for Meta as it attempts to capture more creator-driven long-form video traffic.
Instagram is announcing a big push into longform horizontal video, which the platform is calling “Features.”
Instagram boss Adam Mosseri has been against doing longform video on the platform “for a long time,” he says in a six-and-a-half-minute video (here’s the widescreen version) with VP of product Tessa Lyons, saying that “one of my concerns has been, how do we make sure that we keep Instagram not just about entertainment, but about connecting with friends. If you watch a longform video, that’s “it’s a lot of Reels, photos, and carousels that you might not have sent to a friend,” meaning less likes and shares.
[Media: https://www.instagram.com/p/De9m9lchZXj/]
Now, though, the team is working on making shortform and longform video “symbiotic,” according to Mosseri, like podcasts or comedy specials that can be both long videos and broken up into shorter ones.
Also covering this story
2 other newsrooms covered this event. We read each version separately.
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